


Is this who we are now?

by luthorial



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, F/F, Red Kryptonite, Red Kryptonite Kara Danvers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-28 03:22:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10822701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luthorial/pseuds/luthorial
Summary: Lena strokes Kara’s hair, letting her long fingers twist with the gold, knowing it won’t hurt at all if she accidentally pulls too hard. “My planet burned Lena.” Kara’s voice is filled with sadness. “And this!” She gestures to herself. “Supergirl?! She’s just a compensation. Something to make me feel better about what I did. I should’ve died on that planet with the rest of them.”Or Lena stops fighting the darkness and Kara is tired of saving people.





	Is this who we are now?

**Author's Note:**

> hope u like it!

_“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” – Edgar Allen Poe_

 

It didn’t happen suddenly.

It started with a sentence, like any good fairy-tale would. Except that this is not a fairy-tale, there aren’t any bears or pigs or wolves. And there certainly aren’t any heroes. Supergirl died a long time before Kara Danvers did.

It starts with a sentence, five words uttered so close to Lena’s ear that they shiver shown her spine, making her skin tingle like her cells are vibrating. Closing her eyes, she swallows, there’s no way she’ll forget this.

That’s the problem with an idea, it sits like ink in water, billowing out dark clouds into crystal clear liquid. Polluting the transparency until there is only a murky darkness left. No Stars.

The water can never be made clear again, and the idea can’t be unspoken.

It starts with five words, whispered in a dark room from an even darker heart, eyes blazing with certainty.

It starts with the brush of a hand, like any good love story would.

But this is not a love story either.

Drifting through the stagnant air of the murky office, the words settle like dust on table tops.

_“We could rule the world.”_

*

It’s not Kara Danvers who walks into Lena’s office ten minutes before midnight on a Tuesday evening, rather an imposter wearing her face.

Lena notices straight away. Her posture is different, back straight and confident, no longer the fake shyness she wears etched into her shoulders as she plays the role of Kara Danvers, but instead a self-assurance that Lena has only seen worn by Supergirl.

“Kara?” A shocked smile falls onto her face. “It’s late. What are you doing here?”

Smirking, Kara’s red lipstick twists into something sour. She’s wearing heels, Lena notices, making the height difference between them incredibly more obvious. Kara _towers_. She towers and smirks and wears lipstick the colour of cherry juice, dripping off summer mouths, and she steps forwards.

“What are _you_ doing here, Lena?” Kara’s voice is different, challenging. Her eyes leer in the dark office, baby blue looking almost black in shadows.

Laughing, Lena tries to bite down the feeling that something isn’t right. “This is my office.” She moves cautiously around her desk, so that she can face Kara properly. Crossing her, arms, she juts out her chin. “I’m working.”

Kara fiddles with her hair, twirling it around her finger like bubble-gum. She’s wearing it down. She never wears it down. Leaning forwards, she speaks low. “You’re always working.” Her breath is hot in Lena’s face. “Working. Working. Working.”

Taking a step back, Kara laughs, and it’s almost manic to hear the chime of it in the air, like a nursery rhyme played in a minor key, building in the back scene of a horror movie. “But what are you working for Lena?”

Lena’s phone buzzes in her pocket and she reaches to grab it, but Kara’s faster. She wraps her hand softly around Lena’s, moving close into her personal space so that static buzzes between them. “Answer my question.” The words are soft, falling so close to Lena’s neck that she shivers. She thinks about the blood flowing beneath her skin, how it races through her veins like liquid gold. How it stains and spills against white skin and expensive clothing.

“I work for…” Kara’s distracting, running her hand up Lena’s arm, sending heat through her body, and suddenly Lena can’t even remember her own name.

“Yes?” Grinning wickedly, Kara brushes Lena’s hair off her neck, her fingernails dragging along the smooth skin underneath.

“I work for,” Shakily, Lena takes a breath. “I work to redeem my family name.  To prove myself.”

Briefly, Kara skims Lena’s neck with her lips, feather touching. “Do you like your family?”

“I-” Lena catches herself, pushing Kara back slightly. “Kara what are you doing?”

Kara blinks, her long lashes casting heavy shadows across her cheekbones as she smiles sweetly. “I’m interviewing.” Entwining her hand with Lena’s she moves closer again.

Shakily, Lena draws in a breath. “We’re friends.” Her heart thumps heavily in her chest. This is all she’s wanted, all she’s pictured, for months now. Kara in her arms, soft and strong. She has visions of her hands creeping up under skirts and inside blouses, scratching red lines down soft tan skin. She has dreams where she breaks the girl of steel.

But there’s something not right here. Something off about Kara that makes Lena take a step back.

A laugh echoes around the room, sudden and empty, before Kara whispers into the hollow of Lena’s neck, lips touching with every syllable and hands gripped tight at her waist. “ _I think we both know that’s not quite true._ ”

*

“Do you like your family.” The words are emptied into Lena’s office. Kara’s sat down now, a smile placed once again on her red lips as she perches on Lena’s desk.

“Why are we back here Kara?” Lena sighs. She doesn’t want to talk about it. Never wants to talk about it. Always placed behind Lex, whether he was famous or infamous his shadow was always big enough to swallow Lena whole. His eyes were the same as hers, that’s what she remembers now, a cold green to go with his soft curly hair. They were the same.

It terrifies her.

“Because I want to know why you work so hard.” Kara swings her legs, pouting at Lena. “I want the truth.”

“The truth is…” Lena sighs. “I loved them.”

“Liar!” Kara’s tongue is sharp and mean, her eyes pointed so hot at Lena that it’s almost like she’s using her laser vision. “You _hated_ them.”

Silence falls, quickly and suddenly into the room like an all-consuming darkness. Lena breaks it, barely breathing.

“I think you should go.” Standing up straight, she feels her heart race in her chest. She doesn’t know who it is sat on her desk, but it certainly isn’t Kara. Not even the lipstick stains on her neck are enough for Lena to let her stay. Nothing would be enough to let Kara find out the truth she wants. The one Lena can’t bear to say. Can’t bear to think.

“They _used_ you.” Kara spits. “Everyone uses you Lena! For fucks sake do something for yourself just this once.”

Lena freezes up. Trembling, her hands move to fiddle with the bun at the back of her head. Her hair tumbles down her shoulders as she pulls down the pins, cascading in twists and knots after a long day’s work. “What do you mean.” She’s frozen lake calm, frost settled over morning grass making the soft green sharp and harsh.

“I mean,” Kara grabs Lena’s hand again, pulling her closer so that Lena’s standing in between Kara’s legs, noses inches apart. “Tell me something you’ve been dying to say.”

“I-” Lena wraps her hands around Kara pulling her closer. She’s a _Luthor_ for God’s sake, she’s not going to let Kara Danvers intimidate her. Narrowing her eyes, Lena smiles. “I have nothing.”

“Not even that I’m Supergirl?” Kara squeezes her legs around Lena’s waist.

Lena gasps.

“Oh, come on.” Kara laughs. “Don’t pretend you didn’t know. I’ve seen how you look at me.”

“How’s that?”

Moving her lips closer to Lena’s ear, Kara whispers. “Like you wanted to _fuck_ me.”

Lena chokes. “What?”

“You still do.” Kara gestures to their positioning, the tight grip Lena has around her ass and the way she’s pulling Kara right up against her, hips rolled forwards on the desk top and back arched in a perfect curve. “Obviously.”

Lena lets go in defeat. “Kara I wasn’t going to say anything. I’m sorry if you don’t-”

“Uh.” Kara puts her finger over Lena’s mouth. “I want to fuck you too.”

Speechless, Lena nods. She gives into Kara’s bait. “Why do you think I hated my family.”

“Because you were never a person to them.” Kara shrugs, pulling Lena closer to her again. “You were Lillian’s charity case, her one good deed before she went off the deep end like the rest of your family.” Lena steps away from Kara, anger bubbling underneath her skin, but Kara doesn’t seem to take notice. “You were nothing to Lex. A trial set up by Lillian to see if the boy was capable of love. The answer, of course, was no. You were just another one of his silly little experiments. A last minute abandoned science project.”

Lena gulps, nails biting into the skin of her hands where her fists are balled up so tightly. “And Lionel?”

“Well that one’s obvious.” Kara smirks. “You were his biggest mistake.”

Lena snaps. “The Kara I know wouldn’t say any of this!”

“Oh Lena.” Kara hops off the desk. “I am Kara. Admittedly a bit…” She twists her hand in the air. “Altered. But still her. I have her thoughts her hopes her dreams. Did you know she thinks she’s in love with you?”

“That’s not _your_ information to tell.” Lena spits.

“You still don’t get it.” Kara’s hovering off the ground now, her feet almost comically dangling in the air. “I _am_ Kara. And I know _all_ about you Lena. You’re scared of who you might become, because your family has a track record of madness and you can feel it inside you.”

Lena sucks in a breath.

“I bet you can feel it now.” Kara grins. “That irritation just under your skin, the anger the hurt. Poor little Lena, never had a loved one live. You _try_ so hard and what for? The only way this is going to end is with you as a martyr! Dying for a legacy you didn’t even build.”

“I’m changing the cycle.” Lena says stubbornly, her eyes are hot and her fingers twitch. She thinks about blood, pouring down the sides of Kara’s head. She thinks about the fragility of skin, how easily it tears. Almost like paper.

“I see you Lena Luthor.” Kara comes back to the floor. “What you’ve been given, your family, it isn’t a curse.” She lowers her voice, eyes wide with manic excitement. “It’s an _opportunity._ ”

“What do you mean?”

Sighing, Kara taps her foot. “You’re smart Lena. _Super_ smart.” She smiles at her own joke. “Me and you. We’re brains and brawn. What has doing the right thing ever given you but pain and misery. Your brother’s locked up, your father’s dead, your mother’s an A grade bitch and everyone you love dies.” Her laugh is almost sad this time. “You may seem like you’re put together, but usually it’s people like that who are the most fractured. Fuck, I’m Supergirl and I don’t think I’ll ever be truly happy again.”

“Kara.” Lena whispers. “Tell me about it.”

Kara frowns, her eyebrows crinkled in the middle and her eyes welling up. “Me and you. We’re both the last of our kind. What have we got left to fight for.”

“Kara.” Lena whispers again, but this time she reaches out to cradle Kara’s face, bringing their bodies together comets colliding. “We have each other.”

Kara stares straight at Lena, her eyes brighter than Lena has ever seen them. Brighter than the galaxies between earth and Krypton. “Lena,” She sighs, and it sounds like she’s finally coming home, dragging herself through the door into warmth and comfort. “ _We could rule the world._ ”

And Lena lets the gap close between them, lips meeting in the collision of a kaleidoscope, and all she can think is _finally, finally._

And then Alex Danvers breaks down the door.

*

When he calls her, the room is just as cold as his voice cracking down the phone line. Lena’s wrapped in a blanket, trying not to let her knees knock together as she reads the text Alex sent her before, when Kara was… apparently not Kara.

_Lena. Don’t trust Kara. She’s been infected with Red Kryptonite. We are trying to get control of the situation quickly. If you see her text me IMMEDIATELY and don’t listen to anything she says. She doesn’t mean it. Alex._

The text is long but short at the same time, each sentence snappy and Lena can imagine Alex in despair, typing frantically as she holsters a gun with the other hand.

They had busted down the door to her office just as Kara was getting interesting, carried her away in Kryptonite laced handcuffs and Alex had asked if Lena was okay, her brown eyes deep with concern as she smiled apologetically.

Lena was okay. Sort of. She was empty. Her heart hollowed out like a cave, eroded by the harsh waves of Kara’s storm until there was nothing inside. Numbness spread throughout her body, her frosty calm from before still stuck to her, not being given the chance to thaw in the cold darkness of her apartment.

She likes it that way.

It scares her.

Her phone rings, cutting through the shadows, and she picks up quickly. “Hello?”

“ _Lena._ ”

Lena bites her tongue so hard that the taste of blood flows into her mouth, coppery and sweet. “Lex.”

“ _How are you doing, little one?”_

“Don’t call me that.” Tears spike at Lena’s eyes and she’s tempted to just hang up the phone, but she keeps her voice steady. “I didn’t even like you calling me that when I was little.”

“ _I’m sorry Lee.”_ Lex sounds sincere, but then again, that’s always been his talent. He’s so convincing, as a teenager he had a smile and a way with words that could get him out of almost any assignment.

“Why are you calling me?” Lena demands. Her fingers twitch. _I miss you._

“ _Just seeing how you were.”_ Lex’s voice is soft and Lena wishes she could see him. Something Kara said earlier eats away in her brain.

“Calling to check up on your experiment?”

“ _Lena? What?_ ” She can see him now, handcuffs on, eyes sunken but holding that fake hurt he always used to sway people. To prove he was the one who was wronged. That it was never his fault.

“Something Kara said to me earlier, she said I was just your experiment.” Her hands clutch at the blanket as she says it. She picks at the scabs on her palms where she’d dug her nails in too tightly and watches in morbid captivation as blood springs from underneath, dribbling down her wrist.

“ _Kara Danvers?”_

Sitting bolt upright, Lena snaps. “How do you know that name?!”

Lex chuckles down the phone, and it reminds Lena of how Kara laughed earlier, like a black hole, void of anything but darkness. “ _Supergirl._ _Do you think I haven’t done my research?”_

“Stay away from her.”

“ _Lee, darling, I’m locked in_ the _maximum-security prison. I can’t do much, and even if I could I wouldn’t bother.”_

“Why not?” Lena narrows her eyes.

“ _Because I’m more focused on you right now.”_

“What?”

Lex’s voice gets colder, quietly murmuring down the phone. “ _Tell me Lena, have you started to feel it yet, the anger? Burning red hot inside your stomach, closing in your throat.”_

Lena closes her fist around the bleeding scab on her hand.

Lex chuckles. “ _I’ll take your silence as a yes. What about the dreams Lena?”_

“The ones where I die?” Lena asks. She’s been having the dreams for months now, ones where she falls or bleeds or burns, her skin peeling off her face until there’s nothing but a blistered corpse left. She dreams the world burns with her sometimes, and those times it isn’t so bad.

Right now, she feels so small, cuddling into the soft voice of her big brother as he soothes her from a nightmare. Except this time, he is the nightmare. And maybe she is too.

“ _Yes.”_ Lex laughs. “ _It’s nothing to worry about Lee.”_

“Then why are you calling me?”

Lex is silent for a while. _“I wanted to say goodbye.”_

Lena’s heart stops like a glass frozen in the moment before it shatters across the floor. She can’t breathe, she claws at her throat, leaving scratch marks across her skin, raw and red. She can’t let go. Can’t unfreeze.

The phone clicks dead on the other side and when her heart shatters, she doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to put it back together again.

*

_When Alex Danvers puts Kara in handcuffs, Lena pictures grabbing the fountain pen off her desk and stabbing it into Alex’s neck._

_She’s embarrassed, her cheeks flushed. Kara had kissed her. She had kissed Kara. Alex had seen that. Alex had intruded on that, stolen something that belonged to Lena and-_

_No._

_Kara’s evil, Kara’s infected with red kryptonite._

_Lena just needs to calm down, get some fresh air._

_She needs to forget what Kara said._

_She needs to forget the way that Alex’s blood seeps through her fingers, oozing on ivory skin as it pulls life away from her._

_She needs to-_

_“Lena.” Alex’s voice drags her out of her thoughts and she looks up to meet worried brown eyes. “Are you okay?”_

_Nodding, Lena tries to form words in her throat but they can’t get past her swollen lungs, her suffocating heart not even capable of escaping now, like a paralytic in a bathtub with the water steadily rising._

_Lena Luthor watches herself drown._

*

The next time Kara Danvers walks into Lena Luthor’s office, her fingers pick threads out of the cardigan sleeve pulled over her left hand. She’s nervous, withdrawn, her eyes are sunken like she hasn’t slept in days and Lena thinks that’s probably the case.

“Hey Kara.”

“Hey.” Kara lingers in the doorway, the hallway lights casting shadows across her face. There’s silence for a few seconds, as Lena stares at the figure in the doorway and tries to assemble something to say. Kara takes a deep breath “Look-”

“I’m sorry.” Lena says at the same time.

Kara moves into the room, shutting the door behind her. “No, I’m sorry.” She sounds like she’s about to cry. “For everything I said to you, about your family, about-”

“Us?” Lena smiles. “It’s okay. It wasn’t in your control.”

“Except it was so real.” Kara sighs, covering her face with her hands. “I’m so embarrassed.”

“Kara.” Lena scoffs. “I was the one who kissed you.” Her phone buzzes and she pulls it out to read, briefly catching Kara’s head snap up in her peripheral.

_Have you seen Kara, she’s not answering her phone? Alex._

“Your sister’s looking for you.” Lena sighs.

“I don’t care.” Kara shrugs, and Lena frowns, something not quite right aligning with that statement. “So, you _did_ kiss me.” She smiles, moving forwards. “You see I _do_ remember everything when I get infected by red k, but I thought that that part was a dream.”

“Why would you think that?”

“Because I never in a million years thought you’d like me back. Unless I was Supergirl.” She laughs. “I was kind of jealous of myself at times.”

Lena blushes, her voice soft. “I liked you from the moment I met you Kara. Even before I knew you were Supergirl. I won’t tell anyone that, by the way. Your sister made me sign a load of forms, you should probably text her, also.”

“She’ll be okay.” Kara throws it off, moving closer. “Look at us, a Luthor and a Super.”

“Miracles do happen.” Lena jokes. Sirens wail in the distance and she steps away from Kara. “You should get that.”

“I think the police can deal with it tonight.” Kara grins, stepping forwards. “I have better things to do.”

“Am I better things?”

It’s a joke, one expected to get a laugh out of Kara, but instead she just smiles, eyes emptier than they’ve ever been, and moves closer yet again. “Exactly.”

*

“Have you heard of ethical egoism Lena?”

“Kara, my parents sent me to two boarding schools and three universities, what do you think?”

“Shut up.” Kara tries to smile, but her mouth barely lifts at the corners. Her eyes don’t shine anymore, like glass that has been worn rough by the ocean, washing up on a shore somewhere completely disconnected from what it used to be. “I’ve been thinking.”

“That’s always dangerous.”

“Could you not be snarky for one second.”

“Sorry dear.”

Rolling her eyes, Kara huffs, blowing a stray strand of hair out of her eyes as she does. She’s wearing it down again, like straw woven into gold. “I’m Supergirl,” She throws up her hands. “Saviour of humanity! Do-gooder of national city. Everybody’s hero.”

“Modest too.”

Kara glares. “You know the principles of ethical egoism?”

“No good dead is truly good.” Lena shrugs. “You can’t ever act altruistically because every ‘good deed’ you do benefits you.”

“Exactly!” And Kara looks like a madwoman now, eyes wide beneath her glasses. It reminds Lena of Lex, in a way, up at four in the morning being driven crazy by another thought flying through his brain. “I don’t like being Supergirl.”

“Kara, are you feeling okay.” Lena steps back, her heart racing. This is too like before, red k Kara and her crimson lips. Her toffee apple sweet voice and her glassy wide eyes. Lena’s hands shake near her phone, but Alex hasn’t texted her, hasn’t given warning of anything out of the ordinary.

“I’m feeling great.” Kara shrugs. “I’m sick of being Supergirl. I have no purpose.”

“You save people.” Lena points out, quickly. She pushes forwards, locking eyes with Kara. “You save me.”

“I don’t need to be a hero to save you Lena.” Kara’s voice is sharp, clearer than Lena has ever heard it, and she leans forwards to connect their lips quickly. “I’d do that anyway.”

“My white knight.” Lena mocks, in a teasing voice. She leans in to kiss Kara again, lingering longer in her arms, pressed up against her warmth.

“Supergirl is,” Kara takes a breath as she draws back. “Supergirl is a fantasy.” She leans on Lena, like her body might collapse when the words leave her. “She’s not real. People _want_ her to be real. _I_ want her to be real. But she isn’t.”

Lena strokes Kara’s hair, letting her long fingers twist with the gold, knowing it won’t hurt at all if she accidentally pulls too hard. “My planet burned Lena.” Kara’s voice is filled with sadness. “I watched it burn. I watched _everyone_ I care about die. I lost _everything_! And this!” She gestures to herself. “Supergirl?! She’s just a compensation. Something to make _me_ feel better about what _I_ did. I should’ve died on that planet with the rest of them.”

“Kara-”

“No!” And Kara’s shaking, her whole body vibrating in Lena’s arms as she melts. “There are no good actions! Supergirl has always been and will always be about me. Everything else is a load of bullshit.”

“Kara you’re scaring me.” Lena whispers. She doesn’t like to admit it, scared of breaking something that’s been broken before, the superglue at Kara’s fragments only a makeshift fix, but her fingers are tight into the back of Kara’s shirt, her muscles rigid, and she’s _frightened,_ of what Kara might become, of what she is, of the inevitability that seems to hover around them.

“I’m sorry.” Kara murmurs, sitting down. She sighs, pushing her glasses up her nose. “You know when I’m infected by red kryptonite, I still remember everything?”

“Yes.” Lena nods.

“I remember the feelings too.” Kara’s eyes snap up. “All that hatred, that anger, that _lust._ ” She stares at Lena and Lena feels heat rise through her body. “It’s already in me, just waiting to come out.” She hops onto her feet. “I can’t control them sometimes, my powers, I bend forks and break doors and you know what?” She inches closer to Lena, until she is in her personal space once more.

“What?” Lena swallows, she’s starting to get a weird sense of déjà vu.

“It feels _good_.” Kara whispers, her breath hot and her eyes excited. “To just let go like that. To do something selfish, for once. Not for _Alex_ or for National City, but for me.” She tilts her head, so that she’s talking into Lena’s ear, sending electricity down Lena’s spine. “I’m tired of being someone I’m not, whether Supergirl or Kara Danvers. I am Kara Zor El, and it’s time I stop pretending. For the sake of the people I let burn.”

“I know what you’re saying.” Lena admits, and this is it: the deep end. “My family. Everything I do is to escape them, escape who they made me and who I am, and what for? I should be proud to be a Luthor, Lex was my _brother_ I loved him and I’m tired of pretending he’s dead to me.”

“Exactly.” Kara grins, white teeth shining.

Placing her arms around Kara’s waist, Lena leans in. “Tell me what you want me to do.” She kisses the spot just below Kara’s ear, down her neck to where the collar of her shirt meets her skin.

Kara steps back and Lena frowns at the lack of warmth. Slowly, Kara removes her glasses, dropping them on the floor. “I want you to destroy who I used to be.” She leans in close. “And then I want you to let me fuck you.”

Lena crushes Kara’s glasses with the heel of her shoe, and jumps into the water.

*

Lena’s headed to Kara’s apartment, picking up Chinese takeaway on her way, when she realises she’s going to need two more arms to carry the amount of food that Kara eats.

She’s walking as well, having told her driver to just drop her off at the restaurant – Kara’s apartment is only a few blocks away and the traffic’s busier than usual due to Saturday night clubbers and bachelorette parties no doubt.

Sighing, she pays for the food, holding two plastic bags in each hand, and struggles her way through the heavy wooden door at the front. Out into the city of towering lights and giants disguised as buildings.

She’s made it halfway to Kara’s when she stops for a breather. It’s not that she’s unfit, she goes to the gym at least twice a week and makes sure that her diet stays vaguely healthy, it’s just that its night, she’s tired, she’s wearing stilettos and she’s carrying enough dumplings to feed a family of five.

So, she takes a breather, stops for a second in the middle of the busy streets, bustling with cigarette smoke and hurried shoppers, cars racing by under the starless sky.

It’s not a big deal.

Until she feels the cold glint of a pistol dig into the back of her skull.

*

_“Alex.” Lena picks up the phone. She’s lying on Kara’s sofa, Kara positioned between her legs pouting and gesturing for Lena to hang up._

_“Kara?” Warm hands trail up her thighs as Kara shuffles closer. Lena grins down the phone. “I’m sorry she’s not here right now.”_

_Kara smiles, settling against Lena’s chest. “No I don’t know where she is.” Lena turns her head so that her lips catch Kara’s. The kiss lasts a few seconds, bathed in the yellow light streaming through the translucent drapes on Kara’s window. Dust particles dance around them in the air._

_“6 days?” Lena sits up. “Alex that’s crazy I saw her yesterday.”_

_Kara begins to unbutton Lena’s shirt, her fingers working lazily in the afternoon sun. “I’m sure she’s just off doing some Kara thing in a parallel dimension or something.” Lena says. “I mean there’s not much to worry about, she is invulnerable.”_

_Lena gasps as Kara’s mouth meets her hipbone, trailing its way upwards. Stifling it with a yawn, she closes her eyes. “If I see her I’ll send her to you. Goodbye Alex.”_

_Hanging up the phone, Lena grins, sitting up and switching their positions. “Well that was fun.”_

*

The pistol feels like death, it’s cold barrel reminiscent of a scythe. Putting the Chinese down and her hands up in the air, Lena turns slowly.

“Well, well, well.” The man walks out of the shadows, his face old and withered and saliva caught in his greying beard. “Looks like I caught myself a Luthor.”

“Looks like you’ve caught yourself a problem.” The gun is still pointed at her, glinting in her face. “I would put that thing away if I were you.”

“Or what.” The man laughs. “Your brother’s the only one of you who isn’t a coward, and you can’t exactly call him because he’s in prison.” His eyes glint in synchronisation with the weapon. “Not that he seems to care much anyway.” Lena expects the pang of pain in her heart to arrive, as it always does when someone mentions Lex, but she feels nothing.

A funny look falls over the man’s face, and he smiles a twisted smile, with crooked teeth and chapped lips. “I suppose you did get the looks though.”

The man is holding the gun in his left hand, his right coming up to touch Lena’s face and as he reaches out she spits at him. He backhands her, quickly and sharply across the face and the sting quickly cools into an ache that she knows will be there for days. “That’s not the way for a pretty lady like you to act!”

“You’re right.” Lena agrees, through gritted teeth. She feels dirty, blood tickles as it gently begins to dribble down her face. “Lex was always a fighter, I’ve always been the thinker.”

Quickly, she brings her knee up, hard and fast into the man’s groin. He doubles over, and as he does she snatches the gun. Crouching down to his level, a smile forms onto her face, her teeth white against the dark night. “But we learnt it from each other.”

The man puts his hands up. “Please don’t the police. I’ll leave, you won’t see me again.”

“Oh no.” Lena stands, stepping on the man’s hand with her heel. He groans in pain. “The police wouldn’t have half as much fun with you as I’m about to.”

“Please.” The man sounds desperate now. “Put the gun down and I’ll go peacefully.”

“No.” Lena twirls the gun. “It doesn’t work that way you see. I want you to apologise for hitting me first. Then I want you to apologise for my brother. And then,” She gestures. “I’ll let you go.”

“Thanky-”

“Ah ah.” Lena shushes, “I’m not done talking.” She holds the gun steady. “First off, I’m going to shoot you.” She pulls the trigger, shooting a hole through one of the mans raised arms.

Screaming, he rolls over and cradles his injury, blood seeping black into the cracks of the pavement below. “I’m sorry!”

“Sorry for what?!” Lena yells, pointing the gun.

“Sorry that I hit you!” The man yells. “Jesus Christ you’re the craziest bitch of the batch.”

Lena fires again, this time sending a bullet through his leg. “Don’t you _dare_ speak of me like you know me.”

There’s a sudden whooshing sound from behind her and Lena doesn’t have to turn around to know who it is.

“Supergirl.” The man sobs. “She’s crazy! She shot me! Twice! Save me. Please.”

“Anything to help National City.” Kara rushes forwards, helping the man to his feet. She carries him so that they’re facing Lena.

“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” The man mumbles, looking only at the ground.

“Lena Luthor.” Kara says, eyes burning into Lena’s. “I am so disappointed in you.”

“I-”

Suddenly, there’s a loud cracking sound and the man crumples to the floor, neck twisted at an unnatural angle, and Kara looks down in disgust. “For not finishing the job.”

“Kara?” Lena watches in confusion as Kara wipes blood on her suit, eyes locking on to something behind Lena.

“But you did get Chinese! Come on, I’ll fly us home.”

*

They stand in the shower together and Lena watches the blood wash off Kara’s body into the drain. “Is this who we are now?”

“Only if you want it to be.” Kara smiles affectionately. “Your path is yours to choose Lena, like I’ve always told you. And I will _always_ be here to protect you.”

“You can’t protect me from myself.”

“You don’t need protecting from you.”

“Do you remember what you said? On red k?”

“Yes.”

“We can rule the world. Did you mean that?”

“Yes.”

“Why?"

“Because-” Kara sighs. “Because I’m sick of losing people. I’m sick of giving and giving and giving, and never getting anything in return. All these people do is take, don’t you think it’s our turn to take some back.”

“They took my family.” Lena feels tears run down my face. “The city that is, they turned them into caricatures of monsters, a cliched tragedy of a bloodline gone wrong.” Brows furrowed, she speaks with determination.

“If they wanted a tragedy, they’ve got one.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> luthorial.tumblr.com


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